Moby Dick's First Suicide Run on the 'Pequod'

THE CLIENT: Yet another Japanese illustrated literary classic edition of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick: or The Whale." "Hakugei: The Legend of the White Whale" was an edited and assembled anthology of rendered art based on Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby Dick. The Tokyo publishing house assembled this coffee-table sized book from a number of illustrations focused upon both classic American "Charles W. Morgan" class American whaling ships and renders of the Great White Whale which was described from surviving crew members of the 1820 Essex ramming incident by a bull sperm whale northwest of Hawaii in 1820 for a 1989 multi-artist graphic novel in a solid and very well-bound cover.

THIS RENDER: The beginning layout for the actual death of the whale which was translated to animation in Tokyo. The original was damaged on the JAL flight home from Tokyo to Los Angeles in 1988.

BOOK SYNOPSIS: "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale" is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee.

ART CATEGORY: I rendered this illustration study with pens, inks, markers, heavy Berol Prisma pencils which followed several pencil and ballpoint sessions.

ILLUSTRATION SUBJECT: The First of two success ramming attacks on the 113 ft (34 m), 351.3 (Old Tons) American whaling double-topsail bark rig vessel Pequod.

FROM THE WIKIPEDIA SYNOPSIS: "On the first day of the chase, Ahab smells the whale, climbs the mast, and sights Moby Dick. He claims the doubloon for himself, and orders all boats to lower except for Starbuck's. The whale bites Ahab's boat in two, tosses the captain out of it, and scatters the crew. On the second day of the chase, Ahab leaves Starbuck in charge of the Pequod. Moby Dick smashes the three boats that seek him into splinters and tangles their lines. Ahab is rescued, but his ivory leg and Fedallah are lost. Starbuck begs Ahab to desist, but Ahab vows to slay the white whale, even if he would have to dive through the globe itself to get his revenge.

On the third day of the chase, Ahab sights Moby Dick at noon, and sharks appear, as well. Ahab lowers his boat for a final time, leaving Starbuck again on board. Moby Dick breaches and destroys two boats. Fedallah's corpse, still entangled in the fouled lines, is lashed to the whale's back, so Moby Dick turns out to be the hearse Fedallah prophesied.

"Possessed by all the fallen angels", Ahab plants his harpoon in the whale's flank. Moby Dick smites the whaleboat, tossing its men into the sea. Only Ishmael is unable to return to the boat. He is left behind in the sea, and so is the only crewman of the Pequod to survive the final encounter. The whale now fatally attacks the Pequod. Ahab then realizes that the destroyed ship is the hearse made of American wood in Fedallah's prophecy.

The whale returns to Ahab, who stabs at him again. As he does so, the line gets tangled, and Ahab bends over to free it. In doing so the line loops around Ahab's neck, and as the stricken whale swims away, the captain is drawn with him out of sight. Queequeg's coffin comes to the surface, the only thing to escape the vortex when Pequod sank. For a day and a night, Ishmael floats on it, until the Rachel, still looking for its lost seamen, rescues him."